


Another Day, Another Round

by aliitvodeson



Series: Coin Comes Down Heads [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bar Scene, Ficlet, M/M, One Shot, Pick Up Lines, alocholism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 07:36:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1736465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliitvodeson/pseuds/aliitvodeson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Watson is just another depressed veteran, another man on the streets, another body in the pub. Jim Moriarty sees something special, something different, something new.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Day, Another Round

The blond in the corner watches the foam on top of his beer, just as Jim watches the twitches of his mouth. Hours the blond has sat there, far longer than Jim has been at the bar. Jim's downed two shots since taking his customary stool, the blond four pints of standard, cheap beer.  
When the foam has melted down to join the rest of the amber liquid, the blond raises his glass to his lips and downs it, three breathes for air.  
"Buy you another?" Jim drops off his stool. The blond turns, finding Jim's eyes, and Jim grins all the wider for it. "Another round for the gentleman, please."  
"I'm not rea-"  
"Let's pretend you made your protestations, I countered all of them logically, and you've accepted my presence with grudging grace. Jim Moriarty." He drops into the seat opposite from the blond as the bar tender puts a fresh glass on the table. "And who are you," the prompt is quiet, spoken under the bar's music.  
The blond sighs and knocks back the first eighth of his drink. "John Watson. And I really just want to drink on my own."  
"Sure you do." Leaning back, he crosses his legs and arms. "Which was is, the discharge or the homelessness?"  
"I'm sorry?" John, blue eyes flashing with something that might have been dangerous if he hadn't been so intoxicated.  
"What prompted you to seek the company of alcohol tonight? The army discharge, or being homeless?" John's blank look is met by Jim's grin. "You limped when coming over to the bar, watched the entrances and just now you dropped into an attack position. You want to fight me. The homelessness, well, you just look like it. It's not that hard of a leap."  
"You mean I smell."  
"This whole place does, Johnny boy. I wasn't singling you out."  
"But I still smell."  
Jim recoiled from the hurt look in John's eyes. Of course John would be touchy. Of course he couldn't make fun of that part of John's life. The soldier's pride, isn't it wonderful. "I've smelled worse, and certainly from men who weren't as cute as you. That's it own redemption, don't you think?"  
John's eyes darkened. It was like watching the sea in the middle of a storm, rising and falling as the winds turned the sun this way and that. "You're flirting with me."  
"Yes I am, Johnny boy. Going to stop me?"  
John sighs, again, and gives Jim a look. There's so much contained in those eyes. So much fury, so much loss, so many tangled emotions that Jim could be picking at them for weeks and he would be no closer to discovering their meaning than he is now. There's a gift sitting across the table from him, a gift that takes the form of a cute army veteran who drinks his beer room temperature and picks his bars empty. It's a puzzle Jim hasn't seen in a while, not even when he meet the Iceman and his virgin brother. John's simple, John has no depth but suddenly he does. It's there in the brief flash of his eyes over Jim's lips. New, exciting, and Jim's heart beat begins to pound in his ears.  
"Are you going to stop?"  
"Never."  
"Then there's not much point in trying, is there?" John's eyes drop back to his beer. Jim is irrationally jealous of that gold refuge of John's. John's attention should be on him, not on getting hammered.  
"Oh Johnny boy, there's always a point."


End file.
